The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Investor Alley => Topic started by: BFGirl on May 09, 2014, 09:39:09 AM
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I am researching municipal bonds. I have found information on some that are in the secondary market but I am trying to find out how to know when bonds will be issued in the primary market (initial issuance). I can't seem to find a lot of information on upcoming issuance.
I know I could just buy a bond fund, but that is not the information I am looking for right now.
I appreciate any suggestions.
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If you have an investment account with Fidelity, you can buy primary issuances. Within my Fidelity account, there's a toolbar where you can see upcoming offerings, etc. You can filter by ratings, corporate vs muni, maturity date, callable or not, etc.
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We did not do municipals, but we built a bond/CD ladder on the Vanguard site; Fidelity probably does the same. It will indicate your average duration, cash flows, and yield to maturity on the bonds. Annette Thau's The Bond Book was helpful to me.
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I noticed vanguard are doing an online discussion on muni bonds in a week or so. You may want to register for that ( its free, but you need to register)
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i have a couple of online brokers and everyone charges different fees for buying the bonds. personally i buy them through mutual funds or closed end funds. i just find it easier and cheaper.
i also follow what some of the big name investors do and piggy back them. theres lots of sites that have lists of insider buys and have always done well following them, bill gross in particular. the problem is you dont know when theyre going to sell. i counter act that by having a percentage gain in mind usually 10-20% where i take some money off to protect myself on the downside. i also set stop losses. i have never been stopped out doing this and have always been very happy with my returns. i dont know if this is right for you but its worked for me. good luck.